


never would've guessed!

by Darkfromday



Series: Arc-V Rare Pair Week 2017 [5]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Arc V Rare Pair Week, F/F, F/M, Multi, lateposting 2017, prompt fills
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 13:57:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11991240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkfromday/pseuds/Darkfromday
Summary: Prompt fills for Arc-V Rare Pair Week, Day 5: Surprise.





	1. complementary ornaments (masumi/yuzu/asuka)

Masumi blows the bangs off her forehead with a huff of air.

There’s too many musical notes on this Christmas tree.

_Where in the world did the rest come from?_

When last she was here, Yuzu had left enough space free for them to decorate and personalize the other two-thirds of the tree. Now–-

 _She’s gone mad. No way I’m leaving all these up and just having a_ singing tree _on my first winter away from home._

Masumi straightens up after retrieving the box she dragged into the living room. Meticulously and thoroughly, she picks gem ornaments out of this box and spreads them out among the pine needles, shifting and removing Yuzu’s superfluous note ornaments as necessary.

“There we go,” she murmurs as she works. “You may be the better duelist, Yuzu, but better decorator you are not.”

She leaves enough room for another third of decorations on their already-bulging tree, then moves to make cookies that she’ll probably polish off herself. Being home first has its advantages.

* * *

 

Yuzu makes it home from work second. There’s one cookie left by then.

“For me?” she gushes, kissing Masumi’s lower lip as she nabs it.

“Half is, yes,”

“ _Half?”_ the diva duelist pouts. But she doesn’t argue–-at home, there’s no point challenging the Koutsu temper.

Masumi just smiles smugly. Because the other half of that cookie is for Tenjoin Asuka, the fiercest lover of sweets she’s ever met, and she will appreciate some sugar after finishing her daily 3K run. Masumi knows this just like she knows that Yuzu doesn’t drink coffee since she sees enough of it during her Starbucks shifts.

Yuzu just barely polishes off her cinnamon half before their third knocks, unlocks and jogs through the door.

“Asuka!”

Their older girlfriend grins confidently, shrugging out of her yoga top in favor of digging for another. “Afternoon Masumi, Yuzu. What do you think, shrug or shower?”

“Oooh, shower!” Yuzu perks up, her eyes sparkling mischievously. “I’ll join you–-”

“Not  _that_  kind of shower,” Asuka laughs. “Masumi, I know how you are about leaving things lying around, but don’t bother my gym bag just yet. I’ve got a holiday surprise inside.~”

 _A surprise!_  Masumi grins, giving her a thumbs-up. The moment where Asuka takes the other half of the cookie in her mouth and flees toward hot water and fluffy winter robes is a beautiful one.

Yuzu and Masumi look at one another for ten seconds, then dive simultaneously for the bag, rifling frantically for the mystery gift.

Nothing was forthcoming, much to their frustration; how could they partake if they couldn’t even find the thing?

“ _Ugh_ ,” Yuzu eventually groans, flopping down on the couch. “I hate waiting.  _Maaaasumi_ , make more cookies.”

Masumi rolls her eyes and calls her a vulgar name, but more cookie dough goes into the oven.

Asuka comes out steaming, sparkling and smirking. “I knew you two brats couldn’t resist going through my bag,” she says, unzipping the one secret pocket they somehow didn’t see and unloading a handful of some bi-colored things that aren’t easily identifiable. When her chastened girlfriends come over to guiltily investigate, both exclaim excitedly when the unfamiliar becomes familiar.

_The Fusion symbol!_

_And the colors too!_

“You  _made_  ornaments for the tree?” Masumi queries, taking one shiny bauble in her hands.

Asuka beams, and takes time to place her ornaments on the tree’s empty spots with care. “Yep! It’s kind of hard to find stuff advertising Fusion summoning anymore, but I thought you two would appreciate a homemade addition more anyway.”

“We’ll make you a Ritual cake for your birthday!” Yuzu promises, and Masumi feels shivery and warm as she nods her agreement.

They haven’t been together for very long, so every milestone feels wild and wonderful–-charged with uncertainty too, since there’s no guarantee they’ll have another Christmas together after this one. Lack of clarity usually dulls Masumi’s shine, but something about Yuzu’s warmth and Asuka’s overflowing confidence doesn’t allow any worry to take root for long.

Instead, as they light the tree and rush to save the new cookies from the smoking oven, she finds herself looking forward to Asuka’s next birthday, and Yuzu’s, and their next ones after that and that. She looks forward to more shared holidays, and family dinners, and cuddling during movies, more and more memories that might be just as sweet as the desserts coming from their kitchen.


	2. beneath that layer, another (dennis/ruri)

Kurosaki Ruri hated chocolate. Like…  _hated_  it.

Learning this stunned Dennis so much you could have knocked him over with a feather from Winged Kuriboh.

Though she was beautiful, friendly and agreeable, Dennis found her a tough nut to crack. Something about her demeanor told him that he wasn’t seeing all of her, or even  _most_  of her. So one afternoon following his latest show, seeing her lingering, he invited her out to lunch, thinking if he plied her with sweets she’d be  _sweeter_  towards him, or something.

The fish and other seafood had gone over fine, but she dropped her bombshell the minute after he’d opened his mouth to gallantly order her a slice of chocolate cake.

“Oh, don’t please. I don’t like chocolate at all.”

“ _Eh?_  What dimension are you–-are you serious?!”

She laughed–surprising too, as it was more of a bark than any sort of girlish giggle. “I am serious. And it’s not because I’m allergic, either! I just don’t care for the taste.”

“Well–-” Dennis sputtered. “-–well, what dessert  _should_  I buy you then?”

Ruri’s response was to just roll her eyes and wave for the check while he babbled. “How about you just pay your half of dinner and we’ll call it even?”

* * *

 

 _She’s impossible to predict_ , he bemoaned another time.

Ruri loved birds, and had been pleased when on another  ~~date~~  outing Dennis had taken her to the local zoo, particularly to the aviary to gasp and marvel at all the birds. But stupid him, he had to mess up somehow, and his time had come when he’d used Solid Vision to try and take her on a flight with himself and Trapeze Magician.

“ _No!_  No no no  _gods_  no!”

“Ruri, just take my hand and come out of your room!”

“Like hell!”

Turned out, Ruri was terrified of heights.

“Oh come on,” he’d coaxed, inwardly screaming at himself for misjudging her yet again. “I’ll hold you the whole time. We’ll make one turn–-be back before you know it–-”

“Dennis Mackfield, I  _said_  no and I  _mean_  no. If people were meant to fly, we’d have wings! I’ll stick to bird-watching, thank you _very_   _much_.”

Dennis wobbled in his monster’s grip, which didn’t ease her fearful and equally-wobbly tirade of words one bit. He landed in the tree near her window and dispelled his partner, groaning. Showing off Real Solid Vision in the Xyz Dimension was against all the rules he’d been given, and he’d broken them hoping for a night of fun with the target whose trust he was meant to gain.

Instead, he had nothing to show for it.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”

“ _Thank_  you!” She moved to shut the window.

“Waaaaait wait wait wait. I came all this way to see you–-at least invite me in?”

“ _Good night, Dennis!_ ”

SLAM.

* * *

 _She’s way too mysterious_ , Dennis concluded.  _Nothing like Serena_.  _Not even girl-mysterious. Worse._

_Why in the world does the Professor need her?_

(Well, the Professor could wait. Dennis needed to figure her out first. By spending every waking moment with her, if possible. Yeah.)

The one thing they had in common was dueling. Though their styles differed as strongly as their archetypes, the passion for the sport was shared even across dimensions. The thought made the cockles of Dennis’ heart warm: his naïve mark at least loved her one chance for survival, once the war came. Hopefully that wouldn’t change.

 _At least in this she doesn’t surprise me_ , he thought, as he concluded yet another fabulous street performance and looked up to find her pink eyes fixed on him. Or so he thought for a few more precious minutes before she caught up to him.

“Great show again.”

“Yeah uh, speaking of ‘again’…” Dennis licked his lips nervously. “How come you keep coming back to these? You know all my shows by heart.”

Ruri adjusted her ponytail, and gave him the prettiest smile he’d ever seen.

“The show bores me, you’re right,” she replied. “But then again, it always has. I come back to them to see you.”

“M- _me?”_

“Every night the show is the same–-but  _you_  put on a different mask. Sometimes you’re cocky Dennis; other times you’re melancholy Dennis. Then there’s champion Dennis, and tyrant Dennis. You have so many masks and I never know which one you’re going to don… you never fail to stun me.”

 _Imagine how_ I _feel!_   Dennis thought, dumbfounded by this admission, yet strangely flattered as well.

“That’s me,” he said eventually, once he’d tamped down his blushing and fidgeting. “A mystery man. A fine onion.”

“An onion,” Ruri repeated, smirking. “Apt. Explains the stench, and the sense that soon you’ll be crying.”

“ _Hey!”_

She kissed his cheek before he could raise his voice any more. “I like onions.”

“…oh.”

 _Would wonders never cease_.


	3. just dropping in (rin/tsukikage)

_Fwoosh_.

Rin turned at the noise–-and beamed.

“Tsukikage! I’m glad you made it back safely from Standard, but what on earth brings you here?”

“Simply stopping by,” the young ninja replied quickly–-though the way he lowered his gaze gave him away. “It’s been some time since we were last together.”

It had, but her younger admirer had duties in his homeworld that he couldn’t shirk just yet. Rin understood that perfectly. It was why  _she_  admired  _him_ , as well.

“Things have been better here,” she told him, inviting him to sit on the only couch in her garage as she stood. “Not great, but better.”

Tsukikage sat. His pale eyes didn’t waver from hers for a moment. “Has anyone been bothering you?”

Chuckling, she made a fist and punched her other hand. “Nah. Not that I couldn’t handle anyone who tried.”

The confidence in her voice made him smile–-or maybe it was the way her stance and aura filled the room? Tsukikage wasn’t sure, but he hadn’t been drawn to her because he understood her completely, _that_ was for sure.

“How about you, Tsukikage? Have you been treated well when you stay here?”

He fidgeted, playing with some tiny blades in his sleeves she couldn’t see.

“Since we started being seen together, yes. Wait–-what is that shine?”

Rin nodded approvingly at his first words, then startled at his next ones–-he wasn’t meant to have noticed her project.

 _I thought I was quick enough that he_ didn’t _notice!_

“What–-what shine do you mean?”

“The shine coming from under the tarp that’s under your hand is what I mean, Rin,” Tsukikage replied smoothly. His eyes were sparkling, as though he already knew what it was.

Since that was impossible, she took the liberty of revealing her gift to him. With an unnecessary flourish, the tarp snapped up and off her work by her hands’ command.

A sparkling blue-gray D-Wheel greeted its new owner. With virtually no angles, purplish foot pedals and an auto-duel function equipped with a pleasant genderless voice, it wasn’t quite at the level of ‘prized birthday gift’ or ‘garage placeholder’–-but it would be nice once it was actually done.

“Rin… this…!”

“Ta-daaaa~” She did jazz hands around it, before picking her wrench up off the table and returning to the business of building while she talked. This time it was to a boy and not a machine.

“Before you try to nobly refuse my gift–-yes, I know how fast you can move when you need to. But you can’t rely on your feet forever. What if you’re injured? And your brother’s not anywhere around to help you, or I’m not?”

Tsukikage tapped his wrist, where his still-functional LDS matter transmitter lurked.

“And if  _that_  breaks?” Rin pressed, undaunted.

That finally got him to smile and back down, graciously admitting that her wider point had been made. He’d concede that he had to start relying on others to pick up his slack  _sometime_.

“Seeee, that’s all I wanted to hear.”

“Are you sure that’s  _all?”_ he teased.

She drew a blank. Tsukikage wasn’t the type to fawn over specs or belittle average craftmanship, so it couldn’t be about the parts she’d used or the appearance. What was she missing here?

“So you  _aren’t_  sure?”

“No, you got me… what else do I need to hear?”

Quick as a flash, he stood and moved so he was right next to her, splitting his growing grin between her and the D-Wheel. Even quicker than that he lifted one of her green side bangs, kissed her cheek lightly and finally told her what the answer to that question was:

“ _Thank you_.”


End file.
